A large variety of grippers for tufting machines are known. The task of grippers in tufting machines is to pick up the thread from a needle, which transports the thread through a backing material, in order to form a loop. This loop is often cut directly after it has been formed. For this purpose, the gripper acts jointly with a knife that is in contact with the gripper and slides along it. To protect the gripper from excessive wear caused by the knife, an insert made of wear-resistant material is often arranged on the gripper body and, in most cases, is soldered thereto.
Grippers of this kind are shown, for example, in EP 2 412 856 A1, EP 1 953 290 A1, EP 0 200 810A1 and DE 23 41 567 A1.
A gripper of this sort is also shown in EP 2 412 860 A9. To secure the insert in the desired position during production of the gripper (particularly during the soldering process), the gripper is provided, in one embodiment, with a spring element which is arranged in the holding section of the gripper body. The spring element is extremely filigree and is accordingly of limited effectiveness.
What all the above-mentioned grippers have in common is that a sizeable gap may exist between the gripper body and the insert. At a position at which the thread makes contact with this gap, the thread will, with time, wash out the relatively soft solder and will then sustain damage caused by the edges of the gripper body and of the insert. This results in a carpet surface that looks uneven and shaggy on account of the torn filaments. This problem mostly occurs on the inner side of a hook because here, the thread necessarily makes frequent contact with a gap that exists there, since this area serves for picking up the thread from the needle and therefore relative movement necessarily occurs between the thread and the gripper. In some cases, the thread may even jam and then tear.
Based on this prior art, the objective of the present invention is to provide a gripper with which the above-mentioned problems are avoided or are less severe and a consistent product appearance of the carpet is obtained.